Friday, 30 September 2011

Russia is back in the distant universe. An important step in this direction will be made later this year. It is the automatic launching interplanetary station Phobos-Grunt is transferring to the Martian soil to Earth satellites.The launch should be made to the Baikonur Cosmodrome with Zenit carrier rocket in November. For 11 months the cosmic device needs to get to orbit the Red Planet. Few months on spacing will conduct exploration of Mars and look for a place to land on its satellite Phobos. Then the device for lowering the surface land at Phobos, to take soil samples to be transferred to Earth. With the help of these scientists hope to learn more about the processes that take place the solar system.All equipment at the station will be completely new, it is crammed scientific devices, Russian, foreign and joint production. Among them is the Russian-French device to explore the layout of methane in the Martian atmospheric. INHO Chinese satellite, to be launched along with Phobos, will be separated from the interplanetary station orbiting the Red Planet and will deal with its magnetic field research. So the mission is very complex, underlines the deputy head Vitaly Davidov Roskosmos.

At one time we launch Phobos delay to ensure that the mission will be performed. The decision was correct. We were able to increase the reliability of this mission because we performed additional work. Now we do not have any reasons that would lead to changes planned for beginning preparations at the Baikonur devices. Made a special group, it follows all the works on Phobos-Grunt, head of Roskosmos each week listening to information on the status of the head group of works on the project. We calculate that the mission will be implemented fully and that the Chinese unit that will be thrown together with Phobos, to fulfill its mission. Work is an important and risky. If you add up all probability, breathtaking.Continue mission Phobos-Grunt will be Mars-Net project, which will be implemented approximately 2017th year. In addition to the expedition to the red planet , possibly, make the nearest neighbor of the Earth - the Moon, says astronaut, Deputy Energy general RKK Engineers Vladimir Solovjov.It should form a base in orbit. The missiles would switch her major blocks. Then assembly and testing. Further to the base Dolec crew and boat tests made in orbit. Next the crew fly to the moon, the asteroid. Even before the flight to distant planets or the moon, to do some automatic satellite links around the Moon, by which one can make navigation and delivery of information.

Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Russian scientists have made a working model of table Collider, the truth, not andronog, but the laser. In the future, this compact power supplies to dispersed particles infected with greater acceleration than the Great Androni at CERN. A perspective of its practical application, "the older brother of the Swiss" can surely envy.The idea was born of table Collider at the Institute of Physics, "Lebedev" Russian Academy of Sciences (FIAN). For its implementation, together with the experimentalists MDU was established in laboratories, where he built a miniature model of accelerators. It is a compact laser that generates very short but very strong pulse of energy. Levels electromagnetic fields, which occur while they can not be achieved even when an explosion of new super star in the Universe.The main advantage is its compact accelerators told "Voice of Russia" doctor of physical-mathematical sciences professor Andrei Saveljev-Trofimov.It turns out that in the plasma with a laser can create an acceleration field three, four, five times beyond the field, which can be achieved at the Great Andron Collider. This means a radical reduction in size. These are no longer kilometers, the acceleration of electrons takes place at one centimeter or less. A laser system that can provide a relatively small and occupies an area 20-30 square meters.

Table Collider in contrast to his "older brother of the Swiss" that can be widely applied in various fields, continues Saveljev-Trofimov.Accelerators of this type can be used in the Great Andron for initial acceleration of particles. Applied tasks are primarily associated with the treatment of various cancers by using proton beams. It is realistic to increase the speed of laser proton beams to energies of hundreds of mega-electron, and that kind of energy is required for cancer therapy.In addition, it is possible to use proton beams in nuclear research process - the creation and sharing core isotopes. Another field is astrophysics, among others, in modeling astrophysical processes: an explosion of new super star or a meteorite hitting the planet.According to scientists, he and his colleagues access the research impact of cosmic radiation on spacecraft electronics, which depends on the ability to work spaceship.Foreign experts believe that the invention of table Collider in Russia laid the foundation for a new direction in physics research. Scientists, in the words of Andrew Saveljeva-Trofimova, planned establishment of a new center of high energy physics, which will be a key element of a very powerful compact laser. The plan is to build on during the year in the territory of the Institute of Physics, "Lebedev" RAN.

Monday, 26 September 2011

Scientists from the Siberian city of Tomsk suggest that fires off glass. Together with the MVS has already been carried out tests of this new effective means to fight the fire.Product innovation based on liquid glass is ready for practical implementation, says Institute Professor of Physics of high technology Tomskog Polytechnic University Vasily Lots.New extinguishing the aqueous solution of liquid glass - in other words - stationery glue, or as she's known, silicate glue. When the solution to be put into the focus of the first fire evaporates water, there is a certain fall of temperature in this zone. Then the liquid glass, losing water, turn the foil covering the surface of a burning building and in case of further warming it starts to the penny. As a result it creates a layer of lightweight inorganic foam, which does not burn. When extinguishing high temperature compared with water requires much less new funds for fire fighting.The first field tests have confirmed the efficacy of new agents. During training two brigades were extinguished by four buildings affected by fire: a wooden house, car tires, trays with flammable liquid and branches of fir. The first team used a solution based on liquid glass, the other is traditionally extinguished the fire - with water and foam. Experimentalists have come to terms with all the tasks minute faster. In the case of large areas during fire fighting to multiply decreased. Silicate glass can be eliminated fires with levels of complexity, with the new composition of environmentally neutral and not to harm nature, says Professor Lots.

Saturday, 24 September 2011

According to the WorldHealth Organization,HepatitisCin the worldwas sufferingmorethan 170million people.Mostof southernEurope,Africa andAsia.The viruscausesinflammationof the liver.If it becomeschronic,leading to cirrhosis.

Saturday, 17 September 2011

For six months we will eat first hamburgers that is grown in a test tube!

The first will be an artificial hamburger stand 250,000 euros, but production of artificial meat in the future should be cheaper and more cost effective.

First, people hunted wild animals for meat. Then the animals started to grow on farms. Now scientists have to step up to a new peak: growing meat in labs. "For six months we will have the first 'sausages out of the tube,'" he told New Scientist prof. Mark Post of the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands.

Serum from fetal horse

Fasting is one of the pioneers in the development of new technologies "in vitro meat" who this week met at a conference in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. He and his colleagues have so far been largely experimented with pork. From pig muscle to isolate stem cells and then fed serum from fetal horse. Finally they got 2.5 inches long and 0.5 cm wide strips of pork. While muscle tissue in animals red, "Pork from the tube" is a pale gray color and more like a squid tissue.

"This is because the 'meat from tubes' no blood and very little myoglobin, a protein that binds to iron. Now we are looking for a way to insert the myoglobin in meat to get the color, "explained the Post admitted that the taste of" lab meat "is still unknown.

In fact, according to Dutch law, scientists are not allowed to taste the "in vitro meat." "We are looking for a daring person who will try the synthetic pork. If no one answers, I'll do it, "joked Post who is now with the help of anonymous philanthropists for donations to the development of" beef from the tube. "

"I am full of hope and I believe we are in a year to dispose of the first 'in vitro' burgers," he promised, adding that the price of the first "man-made hamburger" could reach 250,000 euros. But the Post predicts that by the time production "lab meat" cheaper way to become economically viable.

Although at first it sounds bizarre, new technology could be the solution to several problems. First, world population will continue to grow over the coming decades and will be in 2050. The meat consumption will double. This will largely be due to changes in dietary habits in the new economic powers like China, India and Brazil, where meat consumption in the past ten years has increased 33 percent.
killing animals

Second, livestock and meat production are a source of greenhouse gases, nine percent of carbon dioxide emissions and 18 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions associated with livestock farming. Thirdly, the killing of animals for food is a big ethical problem, which is a famous philosopher and a vegetarian Peter Singer wrote a bestseller, "Animal Liberation".

"'In vitro' meat will be the only choice that we will be left. We eat a hamburger, rarely think that comes from dead cows. As you get used to the synthetic flesh, we do not even think about it that are grown in the lab, "concluded Mark Post.

Friday, 16 September 2011

Scientists have discovered a way to using giant lasers produce rain. The process, called laser condensation water could one day lead to deciphering the secrets of weather cycles and enable people to master the weather.

For some time in the world-known technique of "sowing the cloud," but it is not considered a safe way to create rain clouds filling the atmosphere because it requires the particles of dry ice and silver iodide.

When the formation of raindrops this usually lead to a widespread expulsion of chemicals and potential threats to the environment. The new laser method is different because it uses natural layers of moisture and atmospheric conditions for the production of rainfall.

Physicist Jerome Kasparijan the University of Geneva, said that the laser can operate continuously without a good line up if there is no dispersion of silver iodide large amounts in the atmosphere.

"Laser can be turned on and off at will. It's much easier to monitor its effectiveness. When the Chinese fired silver iodide into the sky it is difficult to assess whether the rain fell surely," he said.

Researchers have demonstrated a new technique on the banks of Rhone, near Lake Geneva, where they set up a giant moving laser. After 133 hours of firing a laser beam that is produced by nitric acid particles in the air lead to the development of raindrops.

Although there was no real rain, scientists are optimistic and believe that it will soon be able to control the weather, and even to prevent the downpours. "Maybe this will one day be a way to mitigate in some areas and reduce the monsoon floods," said Kasparijan.

The idea of ​​change and weather control is not new. In 1946, an American chemist and meteorologist Vincent Schaefer has developed a technique of sowing clouds, which is still applied.

In China, the government operates the largest system in the world, sowing the clouds to cause rain over the dry areas, and even in the capital Beijing.

Thursday, 15 September 2011

The fact that we live in the universe is, more or less safe. But for what it is we're not sure what lies beyond our universe. Scientists believe they may have seen evidence for the existence of other universes, of which up to now four collided with ours.

One of the theories that more represent the existence of the universe assumes that beyond our universe there are others who appear and disappear, each in his "bubble" of space and time. Usually they are not approaching each other, but sometimes some of our universe appears next, and when they do occur, there is a collision.

Collision with the whole universe would definitely have left some trace. That is, this collision would have left "scars" in the form of a disc in the cosmic microwave background radiation, and that is exactly what the cosmologists University College London found. They detected four of these "scars" that are ten times more likely to be evidence of a collision of the universe than that caused by something else we know.

However, the overall statistical significance of the traces in the cosmic microwave radiation is not great, which means that it takes a lot of data to definitively prove or reject this theory of a collision. Fortunately, Planck space observatories can make recordings that are three times higher resolution than images used in this study, so we will by 2013. receive a definitive answer to whether there is space out there floating around.

Wednesday, 14 September 2011

The asymmetry between matter and antimatter is one of the lesser-known unsolved questions in modern cosmology. The problem is simple. Look in any space telescope or a particle detector and you will see many more particles (such as electrons or protons) than antiparticles (positrons and antiprotons). However, the currently accepted theory on the evolution of the universe say that the big bang had to produce equal amounts of matter and antimatter. If so, why today we see a lack of antimatter?

Even the great Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov 1967th The tried to explain this asymmetry, small modifications of the standard model of elementary particles. Unfortunately, even today we have no generally accepted theory of such a modification of the standard model. So it makes sense to ask another question: that the asymmetry may not just a local phenomenon? Is not the total amount of matter and antimatter in the universe * over * still the same? Do you have some distant galaxies and clusters that we see is actually made ​​up of antiparticles?

It is not easy to answer this question: how much we know, matter and antimatter behave almost identically. Only a very sensitive detectors that can detect an excess of antimatter in cosmic rays from individual galaxies. This comes into play AMS (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer), the result of Nobel laureate Samuel Ting and his huge collaboration, ambitiously projected particle detector, which should give more answers about the traces of antimatter in cosmic rays [1].

Just at the time of this writing, the crew of NASA mission STS-134 AMS installed at the International Space Station [2]. It is still not known whether the controversial AMS to provide long-awaited answers. However, anyone who is interested in science currently has a great opportunity to live following the development of one of the greatest scientific projects of our time: news and real-time monitoring is enabled on the website of the detector [3]. For now, everything works normally. It remains only waiting for the results!

Tuesday, 13 September 2011

The effect of the laws of physics to black holes takes the extreme values ​​so that it is no wonder why encourages imagination and curiosity not only scientists but also ordinary people.

Astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, Neil de Gras Tyson, he tried to explain what happened to us if we fall into a black hole:

"Since the black hole's gravity is so great that out of it even light, which moves the highest known rate in the universe can not escape, our fall into one of them would travel in one direction, which in turn means that no one will ever could tell nothing extreme about our experience (we could not even post that send).

Cosmic Yoga to gruesome death

Here's what befell us, according to astrophysicists, if we end up in some cases black hole.

"But if that happened, we would not have died simply because they would disappear into a black hole, but also because the gravity in order to act on our feet was greater than that which would be operated on our head. This is true even when we are at Earth because our feet closer to the center of the country. However, here the difference is negligible. On the other side of black holes are so small and dense that our height becomes important and our feet soon began to travel much faster than the head. Perhaps we feel that in the beginning was pleasant, as when the morning stretch - it would be a kind of cosmic yoga. But over time the bed has increased to such an extent that outweighed its molecular forces that connect our bodies. at one point broke and would be separated into two parts, probably the first at the bottom of the spine. Being below the waist, there are no vital organs, it seems that survived briefly - before they bled. Meanwhile, the gravity of the black hole would be more strengthened and continued to be cut up parts of our body. "- Said Tyson Neil de Gras.

After the dismemberment of the right, "špagetifikacija"

But according to de Gras Tyson is not even the worst that we experienced! In fact, as we fall into a black hole in the overlapping time and space is narrowed, which means that the space they occupy in its narrower than the depth at the top. In other words, while we stretched, the black hole at the same time the grip of us and turns us into the spaghetti in a process for this purpose called "špagetifikacijom".

Monday, 12 September 2011

A few years ago the world's media have published a provocative news is that the famous British physicist Stephen Hawking publicly bet $ 100 that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), but other accelerators will never be able to find Higgs boson, which is regarded as the bearer of the majority of particle mass.

As Hawking insulted Higgs and his boson?

His statement caused a real alarm in the scientific community, a Scottish physicist Peter Higgs, after whom the boson was named (Research Higgs and his colleagues in the 1960s hit the foundations of the idea of ​​a mysterious particles) provocation he experienced as a personal insult. Higgs then complained that the answer to the challenge Hawking was like "criticism of Princess Diana", but he finally responded, however, the 2008th year after Hawking joked in an interview saying that would actually be more interesting if LHC does not find the boson.

On that occasion, Higgs said that Hawking's calculations on which rested his claims are incorrect and that the idea which is not a good run because he "attempted to combine theories of particle physics and gravity ... the way to any theoretical physicist would not be considered correct ".

No sign of "God particle"

Unofficial opinion polls in the last decade physicists have shown that the vast majority of them believe that there is a mysterious boson and that's just a matter of time before the LHC to discover it. Everybody seemed to be mainly Hawking, known for controversial statements, only flaunts his ideas and authority.

But even though the launch of the LHC on 31 March 2010. to date collected and analyzed data on petabits unprecedented energies of seven trillion electron, Higgs boson still no sign. Discouraged and disappointed with the results, scientists have finally passed Monday, 22 August, at the "Biennial International Symposium on Lepton-Photon Interactions" in Mumbai reported that the 95-odstotnom safe to say that the Higgs is not found in the area where the demand - from 145 to 466 billion electron.

Physicists at CERN are not giving up the search

However, physicists at CERN (which manages the LHC included) are not yet completely given up. Namely, there exists the possibility that Higgs at lower energies, in the zone between 114 and 145 billion electron (in which it asked the experts LHC's predecessor, LEP and still searching for the Fermilab Tevatron) and five-percentage ability to hide somewhere in the band, which has already been examined at CERN. So, the LHC operation will continue, boson will continue to look for, but every day there is less hope that it will be found, all more likely to get Hawking bet against all physicists of the world.

If still no bosons, of which the universe came into being?

However, the key question now is starting to worry scientists did not want to lose the bet, but where the mass in the universe if Higgs boson does not exist? It is possible that our response to this question will require theories that go beyond the existing ones.

According to the standard model of elementary particles at high temperatures above 10 to 15 Kelvin, what would be ruled after the Big Bang (where Electroweak symmetry has been broken and Electroweak forces are not yet split into electromagnetic and weak), did not have mass. A little later, back on this critical temperature the symmetry is spontaneously disintegrated and the W and Z bosons get mass.

One of the few existing alternative is the so-called standard model. theory "TEHNIKOL" physicist Stephen Venberg according to which the original symmetry in space and could interfere with other mechanisms, not only acting Higgs boson. But you will need to prove her so much energy that even the LHC is not up, and piles of money for expensive astronomical equipment.

It should be noted that if the LHC fails to find Higgs boson, with rare Hawking and his like-minded people, gloat even though one group did not participate in the bet. Specifically, the hand can be satisfied with rubbing and U.S. congressmen who 1993rd The U.S. voted against the construction of the Great Hadron Collider versions in the United States.

Sunday, 11 September 2011

The company "Google" will soon allow its users offline access to their web applications - mail, Gmail, Calendar (Google Calendar) suite of applications and documents (Google Docs) for situations when you can not connect to the Internet.

Access to these services will be implemented through the application of HTML5.

These applications can now work only in "Google's" Chrome browser,''''but in the future plans to support other browsers.

Application for access to Gmail already appeared in stores Chrome Web Store, while applications for the Calendar and Docs to go out these days, it was announced on the blog "Google".

Gmail application lets you read mail, work with a list of letters and answering the mail. Replies will be sent after the user re-connect to the Internet.

Docs from within the app so far is only possible to see the document while editing functions to be added later, according to the site Lenta.ru.

For applications Gmail and Calendar will be provided the ability to switch between offline and online modes. In "Googl" services and pre-existing ability to work in offline mode, but has not been realized through the application of HTML5, but by extension the development of Gears of which "Google" suspended in February 2010.

Saturday, 10 September 2011

Biodiversity or biological diversity is the overall diversity of living organisms that inhabit our planet, as well as the diversity of their functions. For overall survival, it is extremely important to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, which is seriously threatened in recent decades.

It is estimated that the Earth resides between 5 and 80 million plant and animal species, some of which are known and described only about 1.5 million. According to the UN a year disappear over 34,000 species become extinct and many even before they are classified as endangered on the list. The biggest threat to flora and fauna is a general pollution of the planet, destruction of habitat, poor access to land, the commercial exploitation: the uncontrolled picking and gathering fruits, poaching, trade in animals, the latter is a business that delivers up to eight billion dollars a year. According to some estimates, every four mammal species threatened with extinction and the extinction of plants and 50 percent. Many biologists believe that we are in the midst of the greatest extinction episode since the disappearance of dinosaurs 65 million years ago. For the last four decades of the 20th century in developing countries has been destroyed more than 40 percent of wild land, and more than 20 percent of tropical forest disappeared. At the same time has drained more than 50 percent wetlands, and sedimentation due to unsustainable use and one-third of coral reefs there is a danger to become extinct in the next 30 years.

"Globally, the best known mechanism of monitoring of individual species is the Red List of Threatened Species of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), which contains information about the status of many species on the planet, following the trends of populations, provides estimates of recording and extinct species. The data are extremely troubling, "says Dusko Dimović from the Institute for Nature Conservation and adds:" However, the protection of biodiversity in recent decades has experienced remarkable progress and is today a very dynamic area. One of the turning point was the summit in Rio de Janeiro 1992nd when for the first time defined the principles of sustainable development, the adoption of the Declaration on Environment and Development and the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity and Climate Change. Today is a central theme in the consideration of human dependence on biodiversity wealth of wildlife on the planet and understanding the impact that the loss of biodiversity can have on the future of the human race. "

The fundamental question is, says our interviewee, is the quality of life on the planet can sustain and develop the same speed and in an environment highly degraded natural relationships. The role of the business sector is now recognized as crucial, because the driving force of most human activities and has many implications for the environment in which we live. "The exploitation of natural resources and nature conservation and biodiversity are essentially two competing processes, but, although it may sound paradoxical, in common is just that they are both a consequence of the need for the survival of humanity," said Aleksandar Mijovic from the Agency for Environmental Protection. "The concept of sustainable development implies the rational use of components of biological diversity for further development of civilization, but in the manner and extent of biodiversity does not cause distortion, while maintaining its potential to the needs and aspirations of present and future generations, as indicated in the Convention on Biological Diversity United Nations."

It is estimated that in our country there are more than 5200 plant species, about a thousand species of vertebrates and invertebrates, tens of thousands, which is why Serbia is one of six European centers and one of 158 centers of the world's biodiversity. The special advantage of biodiversity in Serbia is the presence of numerous endemic species (those that live only in the territory, and nowhere else in the world). According to Mijovic, in our country lives over 1,600 species designated as species of international importance. "Based on the methodology of the European Agency for the Protection of the environment, our agency has established an indicator of the situation in Serbia, which shows that the biodiversity here is still quite well preserved in comparison with other European countries. The highest degree of vulnerability was reported in forest ecosystems and especially of vulnerable ecosystems such as wetlands and high mountainous habitats, saline, and šumostepe steppe ".

Friday, 9 September 2011

Russian scientists are preparing a revolution in telecommunications technologies. The recently opened laboratory Saint Peterburg University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO SPbGU) water works at creating an optical chip that will give mankind unprecedented opportunities.

The main goal is to create a professional optical computer. Today's computers operate on ordinary electronic chips, which features limited, said Voice of Russia Pavel Belov laboratory manager:

Optical chip will work a million times faster than electronic. Electronic chip has reached its limits. In computers we have today manufacturers are struggling for speed, there are problems with heating system board. Optical chip to solve all these problems, it would be a tremendous step forward in communications and computer technology.

Speed ​​of operations in optical computers will reach 640 gigabits per second, ie speed up internet 100 times! Optical chips can be made of metamaterials, which in nature does, explains Pavel Belov:

We specifically create these materials. That is, we are actually dealing with the creation of a certain class of materials. Usually some materials found in nature and trying to learn about their characteristics, and then apply them. We do the opposite: first to invent the properties that are necessary, and after these properties create.

Metamaterials are already applied in the development of compact antennas for mobile phones or in medicine - to improve the sensitivity tomograph. Yet in the optical range is not so easy to make metamaterials - it is too difficult and time consuming process. Although the results can be fantastic. Who has not dreamed as a child that has a cap that makes it invisible? It turns out that it is quite possible to make such a cap, said Pavel Belov.

Now, during the initial experiments for very small objects, whose size measured in micrometers. You need to look under the microscope to a man convinced that the invisible cap works. In the future it is possible to make a camouflage clothing for the army, which will be invisible at a certain distance.

Scientists from St. Petersburg are hoping to cooperate with the innovation fund Skolkovo. Innovative city planning in the creation of laboratories for metamaterials.